How ITIL’s Ownership Transition Impacts the ITSM Market

The ownership of the information technology infrastructure library (ITIL) has changed. As a result, the information technology service management (ITSM) market’s understanding of familiar ITIL solution certification organizations (SerView and Pink Elephant), which have been relied upon for decades, no longer exists in the same way.

ITIL Certification Has Changed

ITIL best practices have long been a staple for both vendors and users in the ITSM market. For enterprise users, ITIL has provided an impactful best practices framework to guide enterprise operations and train those at the helm of ITSM deployments and operations. For vendors serving these enterprises, ITIL solution certification provides a link between enterprises and their buyers, ensuring that solutions serve the best practice needs of buyers. Together, ITIL, in all of its iterations, has raised the bar for quality service delivery.

ITIL defines specific processes for handling IT services and is now in its fourth generation, which marks a significant change. A brief history is that:

• ITIL was originally developed to guide the provisioning of IT services by the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), a government agency in Britain.
• ITIL 2 added definitions related to service support and delivery.
• ITIL 3 was established a five-part service management lifecycle: service strategy, service design, service transition, service operation, and continuous improvement.
• ITIL 4 shifted focus to demonstrate business value and digital transition of all service management functions.

While this most recent change is not a layer or new revision, the ownership rights for ITIL have moved from the government to a private entity, shifting the landscape for vendor certification and creating a change that buyers must consider as they purchase certified solutions. Pink Elephant, SerView, and now PeopleCert are the key players to consider, and buyers must understand the impact of this change.

PeopleCert’s Acquisition of AXELOS

AXELOS was established as a joint venture between the UK government and Capita plc that focused on the development of a number of best practices, including ITIL. The rights to the use of ITIL language and its process definitions have now moved from the UK government and AXELOS to PeopleCert. While this transaction closed in early 2022, it began impacting the ITSM market in the spring of 2023 and continues to be a driving factor. With the acquisition of AXELOS, all decisions related to ITIL rest in the hands of PeopleCert.

In turn, PeopleCert has redefined the ITSM solution certification landscape. It now has multiple levels of vendor solution certifications that are tagged by their branding levels of Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Platinum Global. PeopleCert’s model is designed to assess the level of support for ITIL modules and the qualifications of the vendor solutions team. It follows two basic formulaic components for evaluating how extensively ITIL is supported within the solution and whether or not the technical team has adequate ITIL expertise. Assessments are conducted by qualified third parties who evaluate solutions using this model. Like prior certification organizations, details regarding ITIL certification are publicly available for ITSM buyers and others.

While GigaOm has not specifically evaluated price points related to this granular certification approach, vendors have expressed concern about the substantial investment that is required to participate. Some vendors, especially smaller vendors, have opted to slow the process of their move to PeopleCert’s accreditation both for budget reasons and to allow the market to absorb these changes and ensure that the model is settled for the long term.

The Acquision’s Impact on Pink Elephant

PeopleCert’s acquisition has impacted Pink Elephant, which has long been the “go-to” certifier of vendor solutions for ITIL in the North American market. With PeopleCert’s acquisition, Pink Elephant is no longer able to use ITIL in the same way. The company has certifications that remain active and in place but will expire for vendors over time. Pink Elephant is changing PinkVERIFY to shift its focus to a broader market perspective for service management that encompasses multiple best practice frameworks in addition to ITIL.

The reason for this change is that Pink Elephant views best practices holistically, being influenced by the collective perspectives of vendors, the market, and users. It is considering other best practice frameworks along with ITIL and remains open to covering any that impact ITSM and service management. Some considerations for Pink Elephant include agile development methods, DevOps, LEAN IT, ITAM, and others.

This change is no doubt confusing to the market in the short term, as PinkVERIFY has long played a role in, and been a highly visible verification organization for, ITIL. Over time, it may have a beneficial impact, providing buyers with a wider lens through which to consider their service management deployments and complementing the trend of using ITSM solutions both within IT and across the enterprise.

Implications for ITSM Buyers

The net result of ITIL’s new ownership has already created confusion. It was an abrupt change in a stable IT market segment. The understanding of what qualifies or does not qualify a vendor to claim ITIL certification for their solution moved from a known to an unknown for all buyers; vendors’ understanding was also tentative. Many solution providers have quickly shifted to adopt PeopleCert ITIL certification, but others have not.

From GigaOm’s perspective, this represents a transitory change in ITIL best practices. Time will tell how the transition continues forward. In a best-case scenario, there will be clear and concise understanding about vendor solutions and what they do and do not offer in the context of ITIL verification. At the same time, Pink Elephant’s shift to a wider scope of work will add value for some buyers, and for service management as a whole. All evidence points in the direction of better clarity long term for ITIL-certified solutions and more insight around maturity levels that further extend ITSM.

Short term, it will be a challenge for buyers to understand what they can rely upon for confirmation of their vendor choices in an ITIL best practices shop. GigaOm’s report takes this into account and provides information on solutions that have shifted to PeopleCert as well as those that worked to achieve PinkVERIFY for ITIL 4 prior to this change. It is focused on ITIL 4-certified solutions. There are many ITIL 3-certified offerings that have heavily invested in ITIL and are moving along the path to ITIL 4, and will achieve that validation coincident with the settling out of the certification landscape.

Next Steps

To learn more, take a look at GigaOm’s ITSM Key Criteria and Radar reports. These reports provide a comprehensive overview of the market, outline the criteria you’ll want to consider in a purchase decision, and evaluate how a number of vendors perform against those decision criteria.

• GigaOm Key Criteria for Evaluating IT Service Management (ITSM) Solutions
• GigaOm Radar for IT Service Management (ITSM)

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